Page 13 of Old Secrets

Dinner, which consisted of a sampling of the various delicacies China had to offer, did an excellent job of curtailing our cuddling plans. While we enjoyed joining the mile high club, rather than explore the wonders of cuddling by numbers, we dozed. An amused Amelia woke us for the work portion of our flight, which we both protested with sleepy yawns.

“Our hosts find us to be funny, as they expected you two to be quite rowdy. Instead, you got deceptively quiet. Upon realizing you two had cuddled yourself right to sleep, they worried. I promised that you two would not be taking a nap if everything wasn’t to your liking. Then they worried you were ill, as they were under the impression you cannot live without appropriate affections. As most of them are Fenerec, they about had a mass panic attack. I told them you’ve been so affectionate lately we were relieved you finally managed to handle your cuddling and affection sanely. Then they worried you’d overwork yourselves. I couldn’t argue with that one, but Mellisa said you’re both driven, haven’t had much meaningful work lately, and would benefit greatly from having a job to do. She used the work dog analogy again.”

I snorted, as her lecture about meaningful work came up once or twice a month, usually around the time I vented over the damned private investigator license people kept making me use. “That’s why I still have that stupid license. She used that on me.” I stretched and shooed her away. “We’re up, we’re up. Thank our hosts, and we’ll be out and ready to work in a few minutes.”

“But will you cuddle with Jake first?”

Jake whined and tried to hide under the blanket.

I laughed. “I seem to have sufficiently tired my wolf out, and I will survive without being cuddled. I will, however, take advantage of that shower. They have a shower on an airplane, Amelia.”

“Yeah. Someone could live on board one of these. It’s amazing. I’ll tell them you’ll be out in a few minutes. I’ve been assured the shower can fit two. I believe our hosts expect you to shower together.”

“Our hosts are strange, but I find them to be likable people. Up, up. We need to shower, then we can work and see what info China dug up for us.” The thought of finally making progress drove me out of the warm and comfortable bed, and Amelia fled before I had a chance to steal the blankets from Jake. “I will use my teeth, Mr. Thomas!”

That got him moving, and he shot me a glare. “This would be a lot nicer if you meant the good bite.”

As Fenerec did a lot of talking with their teeth, I showed him mine and issued a sole warning chitter. “I want a shower, and you need to wash my back and hair.”

I’d even brought the lotus flower shampoo he liked, as I’d recruited his father to go to the spa to buy more for me. As I wasn’t a true monster, I’d even gotten him some more of his preferred green tea scent.

“So, you’re saying you want to cuddle in the shower.”

I rolled my eyes. “We can’t disappoint our host, Jake. Come on, get with the program.” I bounced into the shower to discover it was plenty spacious for two, the water rained down from the ceiling, and it had a nice tiled floor where adults could take leave of their senses. “They must have converted the cargo bay to hold water. Tankless water heater, maybe?”

“This plane is a marvel of technology, and I now wish we could afford one. We wouldn’t even need to fly it. We’d just revamp the plane to be our house.”

“No. We have a house, and we do not need another house. The current house is trouble, especially since we aren’t living in it right now.”

He chuckled and joined me in the shower. “Are you luring me in here just to cuddle, or do you have something else on your mind?”

I pressed against the shower wall to escape a potential nasty surprise and turned the water on, waiting for Jake to confirm we wouldn’t freeze or boil before joining him. “I wanted your thoughts about the Chinese and Japanese working on the case.”

“I think after London, both countries are being smart about their general plan. China has a lot more Fenerec than Japan, and Japan’s packs are small. They got lucky and weren’t hit hard by the plague a while back, but they’re protective of their people. The Greenwich assholes are willing to attack a fox, so there is no reason for them to believe they won’t attack the packs next. Unless they help us, they can’t help themselves—and there’s plenty of evidence that these people are after some pretty dangerous tech.”

I remembered. I’d figured out the initial connection that led us to believe they were after some form of weapon tech, although nobody had been able to learn anything more than that. My interference with the Greenwich case had brought me into the picture, but I doubted they were going to such extremes because I’d been smart enough to ask the right question.

Someone would have eventually.

“And the Greenwich family?”

“Safe and sound last check, and we confirmed your initial leads. He has better security, and Mr. Greenwich has been verified as being innocent of wrongdoing. If you hadn’t saved his daughter, that might not have been the case, though. He’s been transferred to a different project, one outside of those systems.”

“I cut off their easy path to victory.”

Jake shrugged, grabbed my lotus flower shampoo, and squirted some on top of my head before going to work making sure I’d be properly presentable when we arrived in Japan. “Your hair is coming in with its white tips again.”

I kept my head tilted back so I wouldn’t end up with soap in my eyes. “Already?”

I’d cut it a week ago.

“You’re up to about an inch of white now. Just leave it. I like it.”

“Jake, I look like a freak with my hair doing that.”

“Just look?”

“You are an asshole, Mr. Jake Thomas!”